Science Teachers Reinvent Themselves

Ah, the words of an amazed student, actually entertained by a science experiment in summer school.

But the student, one of 30 in Toby Ward's classroom at the College of Lake County, isn't exactly from the legions of gum-popping, Metallica-worshipping, T-shirt-draped youths of the '90s.

Nope, Kathy Fawley is your standard 5th-grade teacher at Santa Maria del Popolo Grade School in Mundelein. And with her classmates in the room down the still, summer-quiet hallway on the Grayslake campus, Fawley is learning how to become a better science teacher.

The class is called "Physical Science Demonstrations for Teachers" and is intended to provide elementary school teachers with the in-depth science education their undergraduate curriculum did not.

The course asks the unusual of these educators: Learn how to make pickles glow, glassware disappear, paper levitate and hair stand on end.

Ward, a physics professor at the College of Lake County, is the brains behind the program. Since its inception three years ago, Ward has provided facts and fun for some 75 science teachers in Lake County looking for inspiration.

His role as a science instructor is hardly new. He has been teaching physics at the college for 26 years.

"Despite my early education, my interest in science goes back a long way," Ward said, recalling his first physics course in high school.

"I'll never forget that class. It was brutal. I was bored to tears. We were given a film to watch every day, because there wasn't a qualified instructor to teach us."

The College of Lake County program is funded by a $28,000 grant from the State of Illinois Board of Higher Education's Dwight D. Eisenhower Mathematics and Science Education Program.

Participating teachers were chosen from a pool of more than 50 applicants and accepted into the program based on their qualifications.

In a previous program evaluation, 92 percent of the participants strongly agreed that the program had improved their teaching of physical science. They said the program gave them new ideas, increased their knowledge of physical science concepts and improved their attitudes toward the teaching of physical science.

"This program helped me enjoy science in a way I never did before," said Halsey House, a former teacher in the program and now Ward's teaching assistant. "I knew if I liked it more, my students would too."

Fawley credited the program with fostering a better appreciation of a science she feels is often underrated.

"Year after year, standardized tests show that kids score poorly in physical science, and it's no wonder," she said. "As teachers, we aren't adequately prepared to teach it.

"Many of us have backgrounds in biology or chemistry," Fawley explained. "We have nothing to pull from when it comes to explaining some of the most basic laws of science, like gravity or motion."

The four-week program provides teachers with a repertoire of more than 100 hands-on experiments they can do in their own classrooms to show students that science can be fun and exciting.

Using homespun methods that may look more like a magician's tricks than what they are--basic examples of science principles--the teachers are able to stimulate student interest and deepen their own understanding of physical science.

"It's a great program for every kind of teacher on every kind of budget," said Charles Ashman, a 6th-grade teacher at Sandburg Middle School in Mundelein.

"Not only am I learning a lot of new demonstrations, but I'm finding out how it won't have to cost me or my school an arm and a leg," Ashman said. "I've gotten valuable information on where I can find materials and at the best price."

One demonstration, on static electricity, involves rubbing a balloon with wool and then wiping the electron charges from the balloon onto an empty soda pop can.

The can, charged with electrons, is then propelled across a desk by hovering the balloon over it.

"Demonstrations like this are great because they're fun, fast, and it's something the kids can do themselves," said Michael Gorelick, who teaches science at Viking Junior High School in Gurnee.

"It beats having me up there lecturing for hours and putting everyone to sleep--including myself."